Abe Akie, the widow of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, has always been a bit of a political weirdo. During her husband’s tenure, her relationship with the controversial Moritomo Gakuen school, a hyper-right-wing kindergarten (gotta get ’em young, I guess), helped land her hubs in hot water. She also recently met with Donald Trump (not too surprising given Shinzō’s close relationship with the US President).
On the other hand, she’s long been an active supporter of the LGBTQ community in Japan, an issue on which her husband actively opposed any progress. She also had a pic taken in a cannabis field in 2015 to help revive Japan’s cannabis culture.
Her latest headline-making stunt, however, sees her returning to form. As Asahi Shimbun (English) and multiple other outlets reported, Abe took a trip to Moscow on May 29th to meet with Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin. In a statement on her X account, she said she intended the trip to help preserve the legacy of her husband, who had 27 summits with the Russian President.
“I don’t want our relationship of trust to come to nothing,” she wrote. Reports say that Abe cried as the two talked.
To be sure, Russia and Japan have a lot to discuss. Japan has long claimed the Southern Kuriles, a.k.a. the “Northern Territories”, now controlled by Russia, as its rightful land. Negotiations have been deadlocked for years.
